Diverse Paths
by kittylover66
Summary: What if you were friends with the homunculi? How do you stop the military from clashing with them? How can you prevent chaos if you're one of them? Choose your path. Rated T for mild language.


DIVERSE PATHS CHAPTER 1

**A/N: Hey guys! So I deleted this story off of Fanfiction because it was terrible. It made my eyes bleed at how Mary Sue my oc was and she was too smart XD so I took away some of her IQ points and made her less Ed-gender-bend. Lets hope my writing skills have improved since then and I hope you enjoy this re-edited story :)**

**~Halle 3 **

Prologue

I stretched my auto mail arms and sat up in bed. Mmmm... I was so tired from last night. Too much reading. I slithered out of bed and walked to my closet. There were only a few things to choose from, me being the poor person I am. I put on a casual black t-shirt and short jean shorts. I grabbed a pair of knee high socks that were gray with diamonds and sat down on my bed. I pulled the socks as far as they could go and lay back, staring at the ceiling. It was a dull tan color and some of it was peeling off. I sighed and forced myself to sit up. I pulled on my charcoal colored boots and headed for the desk in the corner of the room. My also black gloves were waiting for me there. The door slammed behind me as I headed out and slid down the railing next to the stairs. I hopped off the end and landed perfectly into a strut into the main room.

"Going out." I told the homunculi in the room, which consisted of only Wrath, Envy, and Lust.

"Can I come too?" wrath asked, jumping on the couch.

"No." I said, unsure of what that bundle of energy could do.

"Aw… but why!" He sulked.

"Remember what happened last time?" I reminded him. We simultaneously thought back to when Wrath and I had gone out for food and he almost ripped a cat to shreds when it took some of our bread, which I had offered it when Wrath had his back turned. "We're not going through that again."

"I promise I won't do that again! I'll feed the animals…" He pleaded.

"How about we just don't feed the animals." I concluded.

"So I can go!" His sad eyes were too much to bear, and I hesitantly agreed. He did a fist pump and ran outside, arms out as if he were an airplane.

"Be careful with him." Envy told me nonchalantly, not taking his eyes off the stirrer he was spinning in a cup of coffee that I knew he wouldn't drink. "Who knows what the military will do to one of us." His eyes wandered up and met mine.

I nodded in understanding and followed Wrath out the door, grabbing my jacket along the way. It was an icy blue with silvery white fur around the bottom and around the neck area. We were walking through forests and past houses when we came to a stream. We followed it downstream hopping on rock after rock until it came to an opening. Here lied the market. Wrath took the usual route around everything, though as not to be seen, but could still peer at everything. I rolled my eyes as he stared at a lollipop, eyes beaming, a small stream of drool running down his face. I walked over to the elderly figure and smiled.

"How much for that lollipop there?" I asked sweetly.

"Actually dearie," she croaked out "You can have it for free. My grandson gave it to me, but I just can't eat those kinds of sweets anymore."

"A-are you sure? Here's a hundred cens at least." I responded, handing her the money. I couldn't steal from old women.

"Oh thank you." She replied, handing me the candy. I smiled again turned. I trotted through the square looking for Wrath before realizing he wouldn't be in the middle of it. Or would he.

"That was MY mouse to catch!" He growled and pounced at none other than a cat. The same cat as last time. I was surprised the thing hadn't had a seizure from being attacked twice by a homicidal maniac child. People started to stare, and hands went up to their mouths in shock. There were gasps and murmurs, and I knew exactly what was coming.

"M-monster!" people shouted as wrath mutated his arm with alchemy. He ran and swung it ferociously at the feline that was running for its dear life. This is normally the part where I'm screwed. Which I was. See, I couldn't go around following a homunculus. You see why that'd be bad, right? So I wasn't sure what to do. I threw the lollipop at his head and he looked up when it hit him. The cat ran away and Wrath picked up the lollipop that was lying on the ground now. He pouted that he had no mouse, but ran with the lollipop out of the market. I supposed he got the message. I closed my eyes and almost let out a sigh of relief, but fear ran through me when I opened my eyes and saw wrath sitting on the floor looking up; paralyzed. There was the state military. How does Envy do that? Wrath did the only thing I guess he could think of and ran toward me. Now I was really screwed. At this moment, you can only do one thing; run like hell. I ran the opposite direction as fast as I could, which was pretty slow compared to Wrath, who was catching up with me quickly. I was being chased by Wrath, who was being chased by the military, so basically they were chasing me too. I heard a gun fire. Shit. Out of a loud megaphone, I could hear soldiers barking orders.

"The target is the small child with the green hair! Do _not _shoot the citizen by mistake!"

I assumed that was me. As I looked back to see the commotion behind me, Wrath was right on my heels.

"Waita screw everything up again!" I yelled at him. I suddenly tripped and Wrath and I both tumbled down a hill. At the bottom, I ran into something else. I could tell it was a person because I could feel the legs with my back. I looked up from the awkward position I was in to see a boy, about my age, standing there. He had long blonde hair tied back in a braid and a black outfit. His long, blood red coat swayed in the wind as he never took his eyes off Wrath. The boy stepped back, causing me to fall on my back, and walked over to Wrath. He lifted him off the ground by his shirt.

"What business do you have here, homunculus?" The boy snarled, his golden eyes filled with hatred.

"Heh. The Fullmetal pipsqueak, as Envy would call you." Wrath retorted.

"I'M NOT SHORT!" He said, enraged. He clapped and blue sparks flew from his arms. Transmutation. He's an alchemist! His _automail _arm turned into a spear-like figure, ripping his beautiful cloak to shreds. He smirked at wrath upon completion. Suddenly, I had a strategy. I got up to aid Wrath, when I felt a sharp pain in my ankle. I fell straight back down again. Dammit. Let me rephrase that plan. I _crawled _over to wrath and stretched my arms out in front of him.

''What are you doing?" he asked me, drawing back his blade.

"He's just a kid. What are _you_ doing?" I asked back.

"He's not "just a kid". He's a homunculus. People made by alchemists when they try to bring people back from the dead." He told me.

"So you're telling me this kid is supposed to be a terrifying monster?" I asked sarcastically.

"You can't judge a book by its cover. Take you for example. Either you're trying to protect him, or you're really just a clueless girl who obviously doesn't know danger when they see it."

"Yeah because kids just have that danger kind of vibe, you know?" We had a glare-down for a while, and when we stopped, we had realized that Wrath had fled to the woods. The boy grunted and looked back to me. He tried to help me up, but I just fell back down.

"Oh, your ankle. Let me help." He gestured me onto his back. I blushed, but accepted the offer, seeing as I wasn't going anywhere. He held onto my legs and I wrapped my arms around his neck. I was so glad he couldn't see my face, because it was as red as a tomato. We started toward central.

"Rachel." I addressed myself.

"Hmm? Oh, I'm Edward." He replied, glancing at me out of the corner of his eye.

"Sorry about making you carry me like this." I tried to start a conversation.

"It's nothing." I saw a shining silver object from his pocket. The state alchemist pocket watch. That's right, I saw him use alchemy before.

"So, you're a dog of the military…" I trailed off. Apparently my mumbling was too loud, because he looked at his pocket.

"Yeah. Uh, I'm taking you to the hospital by the way, just so you know." He looked forward again.

"A-actually, that's ok. I'm not much of a hospital person. I can fix it myself." I squirmed on his back.

"Are you kidding me? You can't even stand. They'll make it quick." He tightened his grip on my legs and increased his pace. We were just about there. I slouched again and sort of rested my head on my arm. We arrived in front of central headquarters.

"Why are we here?" I asked. I could have sworn he said hospital.

"You can get faster service here." He replied, taking his pocket watch out to show the cautious guards. They suddenly looked shocked and instantly stood up and saluted.

"We're very sorry, Fullmetal Alchemist, sir!" They nervously said. Fullmetal Alchemist? This kid? You've got to be joking. We headed inside and walked through the corridors of this seemingly endless group of hallways. He abruptly stopped at a door and struggled to lift a hand to knock, while still holding my leg. I knocked for him and he glanced at me again. The door opened and a pretty looking nurse stood there.

"She did something to her ankle, could you check it out?" He asked her. I was surprised at his overall mood considering the first meeting we had just a few hours ago. She nodded her head and led us inside. He put me lightly on the hospital bed and started to leave.

"Wait. W-where are you going?" I had previously stated that hospitals aren't my thing, and now he was going to leave me here alone? I don't think so.

"I have some things to do. I'll be back later, don't worry." He smiled for the first time. The smile reassured me, so I settled into the bed more. As the door shut, I met the gaze of the nurse. She began to clap her hands in a sarcastic manner.

"Well done, well done." She said in a voice that was far from her own. Oh, great. Envy. Sparks of red light flashed and he slowly changed from the cute nurse to his regular, palm tree self. The last thing I wanted right now was for him to tell me how much I screwed up and laugh. But of course that's exactly what he did.

**A/N First chapter done! Also, I just wanna say this here so it doesn't give away spoilers and stuff in later chapters, that I DON'T HATE ROY MUSTANG! I swear to Lord Jashin (lol from Naruto :P) that I love that miniskirt-loving guy more than you could ever know. But it ties along with the story to make him the way he is later in the story. :D FYI in the next chapter, the italics are sorta like a flashback, kk?**


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